While living in Los Angeles in the late 90s, my interest in wine grew into a full blown passion as I took several trips to the Santa Ynez wine region. Each trip taught me something new about wine and gave me insight into my own tastebuds. Though I now live on the East Coast, I try to visit a different wine region each year. Over the past several years I've visited: The Touraine area in The Loire (France), Mendoza (Argentina), Chateauneuf du Pape (Rhone region, France), Napa, Sonoma, Willamette (Oregon), Douro (Portugal), Long Island (NY), West Texas (yes, seriously) and of course the Santa Ynez region (old habits). I'm a firm believer that the best way to learn about wine is to taste. Learn what you like, find wine writers that seem to have similar tastes and find someone at your local wine store who knows what he/she is doing and always asks about your tastes first. So get off my blog and start tasting!!!!